Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark recently found himself in a media furore as he asserted his right to use colourful racial terms. Ratepayers might regret the distraction from local concerns, but part of my job in Parliament is to consider speech issues in a serious way. And I’ve concluded that free speech is indeed under threat…
TODD STEPHENSON: FREE SPEECH GOES BOTH WAYS
TODD STEPHENSON: FREE SPEECH GOES BOTH WAYS
03 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of crime, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left
TODD STEPHENSON: FREE SPEECH GOES BOTH WAYS
03 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of crime, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left
Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark recently found himself in a media furore as he asserted his right to use colourful racial terms. Ratepayers might regret the distraction from local concerns, but part of my job in Parliament is to consider speech issues in a serious way. And I’ve concluded that free speech is indeed under threat…
TODD STEPHENSON: FREE SPEECH GOES BOTH WAYS
Jonathan Pie: The Scottish Hate Crime Bill
03 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, regressive left, Scotland
Say It Ain’t So, Joe: The House Formally Invites President Biden to Testify in Impeachment Inquiry
30 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2020 presidential election, 2024 presidential election

House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer has sent a seven-page letter (below) to invite President Joe Biden to testify in the Republican impeachment inquiry. The letter is the latest, and best, reduction of the glaring contradictions in the President’s past statements on his family’s well-documented influence peddling operation. President Biden is not expected to testify. […]
Say It Ain’t So, Joe: The House Formally Invites President Biden to Testify in Impeachment Inquiry
The Gag and the Goad: Trump Should Appeal Latest Gag Order
28 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan this week became the latest court to impose a gag order on former president Donald Trump with a stinging order that found a history of Trump attacks that threatened the administration of justice. The order will bar public criticism of figures who are at the center of the […]
The Gag and the Goad: Trump Should Appeal Latest Gag Order
Why NZ First shouldn’t get any apologies for the SFO’s failed prosecution
28 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: crime and punishment, law and order
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found in […]
Why NZ First shouldn’t get any apologies for the SFO’s failed prosecution
*Who’s Afraid of Gender?*
26 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of crime, economics of education, gender, law and economics, property rights Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left
That is the title of the new Judith Butler book, focusing mostly on trans issues. To be clear, on most practical issues concerning trans, I side with the social conservatives. For instance, I don’t think trans women have a right to compete in women’s weightlifting contests. And I have not been happy with how many […]
*Who’s Afraid of Gender?*
Home detention for attempted murder
25 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: crime and punishment, criminal deterrence, law and order
The Herald reports: A high school student wrote a detailed “kill plan” and told his ex to stay away from school on the day he wanted to kill her new boyfriend. But when his plans went awry, the teen instead went to his schoolmate’s home days later, swinging a machete at his victim’s head, slicing…
Home detention for attempted murder
The “Perversity” of Michael Cohen: Federal Judge Denounces Cohen as a Serial Perjurer
25 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2016 presidential elections, 2020 presidential election, 2024 presidential election

Michael Cohen was back in court this week and it did not go well. The former fixer for Donald Trump was in court seeking a reduction in his federal sentence and to answer for his use of Google’s AI chatbot to submit arguments with fake case authority. However, things went off the rails when his […]
The “Perversity” of Michael Cohen: Federal Judge Denounces Cohen as a Serial Perjurer
The Dripping Away of the Democratic Party: Sir Thomas More and the Biden Corruption Scandal
25 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election

Below is my column on Fox.com for the hearing this week on the corruption scandal involving the Biden family. For years, the Democrats have opposed any effort to investigate the Bidens, including as part of the current impeachment inquiry. Various members misrepresented my earlier testimony during the hearing on the basis for the impeachment inquiry. […]
The Dripping Away of the Democratic Party: Sir Thomas More and the Biden Corruption Scandal
“Blatantly Misogynistic”: UC Berkeley Students Declare That They Feel Unsafe After Professor Shares Dating Advice
24 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, economics of education, economics of media and culture, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left

This week, parents of students at the University of California at Berkeley took the extreme step of hiring private security to protect their children at the school after years of complaints over rising crime and anti-police policies. The university, however, is focused this week on another threat that has led students to object that they […]
“Blatantly Misogynistic”: UC Berkeley Students Declare That They Feel Unsafe After Professor Shares Dating Advice
No, he wasn’t joshing when he played the “mana” card – and in the High Court it came up trumps with Justice Andrew
23 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: crime and punishment
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction than non-Maori, if they draw a judge’s […]
No, he wasn’t joshing when he played the “mana” card – and in the High Court it came up trumps with Justice Andrew
Nikole Hannah-Jones on reparations for descendants of slaves
21 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of crime, economics of education, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, occupational choice, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: affirmative action, free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left

As you know, I go back and forth on the question of affirmative action for college and professional-school admissions, and even after I thought I’d settled on a view (i.e., give some preference to minorities among those equally qualified for admission), it still keeps changing. After I read the long New York Times piece below […]
Nikole Hannah-Jones on reparations for descendants of slaves
Spot on Orwell
18 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, law and economics, war and peace
Further integrity problems for the Greens in suspending MP Darleen Tana
16 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: regressive left
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to first suspend Darleen Tana from her small business […]
Further integrity problems for the Greens in suspending MP Darleen Tana

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